Salaam alaykum

For my university, I am involved in the Muslim Student Union on campus, a group whose intentions are to educate and expose non-Muslims to Muslim people, culture, and beliefs in a positive manner. I am not Muslim myself, but I feel very much attached to the community and have quite a few Muslim friends (Saudi, American, Egyptian, and Moroccan) and I have also studied abroad for a year in Morocco. For a Campus event coming up, we are doing an event for Hijab awareness and education. While doing research for this, I realize that my idea of hijab is different from most, and this may be from my exposure in Morocco.

My main question is this: Hijab is required in Islam, but what does Hijab encompass exactly?

For me, it encompasses a certain idea of modesty that a person uses to humble herself and show submission to Allah - mainly dress, but also in the general presentation of oneself to another believer or nonbeliever. To me, this is why different Muslims have different ideas about how much to cover, like wearing the headscarf or not. I understand that today, hijab is rather synonymous with the headscarf itself, and isn’t really perceived an as overall idea of dress.

At my university, there are two American women who reverted while I was studying abroad, and I return to find them in their headscarves and also making comments that they think Muslim women who don’t wear headscarves are weird. They have not been outside of the US and their only Muslim interactions and knowledge come from Saudis in our community (with one girl currently engaged to a Saudi). I have nothing against Saudis, but with my experiences in Morocco, I do not relate to them very well and my ideas of Islam that I have became accustomed to don’t really seem to fit in very well with what seems to be the “Saudi interpretation”. I hope that makes sense. Like I said though, I have nothing against Saudis in particular.

My Egyptian friends and my Moroccan friends do not live near me, and it can sometimes be hard to get into deep religious discussions when there are time differences and busy schedules. All of my Muslim friends in general believe that donning the headscarf is a personal choice, but while I was doing research online, there were countless resources that say a Muslim women is required by the Qur’an and Sunnah to cover her hair with a headscarf even beyond prayer and that if they are not, they are held back by their fears and do not want to take the leap to be fully religious.

Only, I know many Moroccans (and my Egyptian friend), covered or uncovered, who are very passionate in saying that the wearing of the headscarf does not decide how religious or nonreligious someone is and that though modesty is a requirement, the headscarf is not. Even outside of my friends, I have heard this, and there are many other examples of a large majority of people from other Muslim majority countries who do not cover.

It is important for me to have a well-rounded and unbiased view of this topic and by posting here, I am hoping to receive personal accounts, links for better information, and even some background about you (country and upbringing) that has influenced whether or not you think the headscarf is a requirement of hijab or not, why you cover or why you don’t, etc!

(Sorry for the long post)